he Creed!" exclaimed the others, loudly; "for the first article is
ethnical, and belongs to all nations: the second is Christian, for those
struggling against sufferings and glorified in sufferings; the third
finally teaches a spiritual communion of saints, to wit, of those in the
highest degree good and wise: ought not therefore in fairness the three
divine Persons, under whose likeness and name such convictions and
promises are uttered, to pass also for the highest Unity?"

"I thank you," replied the other, "for having so clearly and coherently
explained this to me--to whom, as a full-grown man, the three
dispositions of mind are not new; and when I recall, that you teach the
children these high truths, first through material symbols, then through
a certain symbolic analogy, and finally develop in them the highest
interpretation, I must needs highly approve of it."

"Exactly so," replied the former; "but now you must still learn
something more, in order that you may be convinced that your son is in
the best hands. However, let this matter rest for the morning hours;
rest and refresh yourself, so that, contented and humanly complete, you
may accompany us farther into the interior tomorrow."

WINCKELMANN AND HIS AGE (1804)

TRANSLATED BY GEORGE KRIEHN, PH. D.

TO HER MOST SERENE HIGHNESS THE DUCHESS ANNA AMALIA OF SAXE-WEIMAR AND
EISENACH

_Most Serene Princess,_

_Most Gracious Lady,_

Another benefaction has been added to the many which art and science owe
to Your Highness by the most gracious permission to publish the
following letters of Winckelmann. They are addressed to a man who had
the happiness of counting himself among your servants, and soon
afterward of living in close relation with Your Highness, at the time
when Winckelmann found himself in the most embarrassing circumstances,
the straightforward and touching narration of which one cannot read
without sympathy.

Had these pages come to the attention of Your Highness in those days,
the dictates of your noble and charitable heart would have immediately
put an end to such distress, changed the fate of a most excellent man,
and directed it more happily for the future.

But who indeed ought to think of what might have happened, when so many
gratifying things that actually took place lie before us?

Your Highness has, since that time, established and supported much that
is useful and promotive of happiness, while our gracious and sympathetic